Survey: Bay Area more tech and cloud savvy

We here in the Bay Area are tech savvy lot, down with the cloud computing (when we understand it) and emerging technologies.

That’s the upshot of a survey by Penn Schoen Berland, a market research and consulting firm that is opening an office in San Francisco. Not necessarily ground-breaking stuff considering we’re in Silicon Valley but it’s still interesting to see how we stand compared to the rest of the country.

According to the survey, Bay Ares residents are more excited by technology (78 percent of Bay Area respondents vs. 67 percent for the U.S.) and are more involved in technology innovations (60 percent Bay Area compared to 50 percent for the U.S)

While only 18 percent of Americans can accurately define the cloud and cloud computing, 23 percent of Bay Area residents know what it is. Bay Area residents are more interested in using the cloud for things like applications (81 percent Bay Area vs. 65 percent U.S.), backing up computer or phone data (72 percent Bay Area vs. 64 percent U.S.) and online document collaboration (66 percent bay Area vs. 51 percent U.S.)

When it comes to new technology, 60 percent of Bay Area respondent said they like to have the latest and greatest, compared to 50 percent for the rest of the country. People here also want to be involved in making new tech (57 percent Bay Area vs. 49 percent U.S.)

Bay Area resident are significantly more likely to use Facebook, Firefox, Gmail, iTunes and Google Chrome, Google Docs and LinkedIn than others around the country. We also really like Microsoft Office but we’re we’re less likely to use Microsoft’s Internet Explorer browser.